Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-45l2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T01:07:39.410Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

9 - Regulatory policy and the new paradigm

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 May 2010

Joseph Stiglitz
Affiliation:
Columbia University, New York
Bruce Greenwald
Affiliation:
Columbia University, New York
Get access

Summary

Traditionally, monetary policy and financial regulatory policy are treated as distinct subjects. One is, fundamentally, a branch of macro–economics, the other a rather applied branch of microeconomics. One is concerned with money supply, the other with the safety and soundness of banks. In part I, however, we argued that monetary policy affects the level of economic activity through its impact on the supply of credit, mediated through the banking system. We analyzed how changes in policy – from open market operations to reserve requirements to capital adequacy standards – affected banks' incentives to lend and the constraints they face (their opportunity set). We showed that both traditional monetary instruments and regulatory provisions affected the incentives and constraints of banks. Monetary policy and financial regulatory policy are intertwined: both are relevant both for the level of aggregate economic activity and for the safety and soundness of the banking system. And just as monetary policy often went awry because of its failure to focus on how monetary and regulatory policies affected bank behavior, so too, as we shall see in this chapter, has regulatory policy often been misguided. The analysis of regulatory policy must begin with an analysis of how various regulations affect banks' behavior, and that must rest on an analysis of how the incentives and opportunity sets (constraints) are altered.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2003

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×